Foodie. Feminist. Wanderluster.

23/52: Sharp Objects

Last month I packed quite a few books into my very nearly over-the-weight-limit suitcase and headed to the dreamy Paphos in Cyprus. I spent a sufficient amount of time ignoring Aaron and parking my nose neatly into a book. The first book I read and finished, to the soundtrack of waves and Aaron trying to get me away from my book and into the sea, was Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. One of my best friends bought it for my birthday this year and, being aware of the recent television series based around Flynn’s novel, I was already sold. I have rarely dipped into the thriller world before Sharp Objects and, yet, in the last few weeks have already finished another thriller. Thrillers are my jam. This year I am aiming to read fifty-two books by 2019 (I am aware this is going to be more than a tough ask) and you can follow my failure of a challenge over on my Goodreads account. The twenty-third review of the year is of the brilliant Sharp Objects.

Sharp Objects follows journalist, Camille Preaker and her quest to find out what really is going on in hometown, Wind Gap. With an unsolved murder of a young girl and another young girl gone missing, Camille’s boss is determined for her to use her inside knowledge and connections to get quite the story for the Daily Post, Chicago’s ignored newspaper. With a less than warm welcome back to Wind Gap, Camille faces her even less pleased-to-see-her mother. Her stay brings back her traumatic childhood, the toxicity of her small hometown and the struggles she thought had been dealt with. But the one thing that keeps her in Wind Gap is the crime she is determined to solve; the story she is aching to write.

But Camille finds out more than she ever anticipated. She is thrown back into the backwards, archaic and horrifying ways of Wind Gap. She is back to being under her mother’s disapproving glare and watching over her troubled and her ringleader of a sister, Amma. All the while she gets closer to detective, Richard Willis; as the both of them try to get closer to the truth. Sharp Objects is addictive; it’s compelling and haunting and the more you get creeped out, the more you want to read. As readers, we worry for Camille; we worry she’ll slip into the darkness haunting her beneath her clothes. We fear her mother’s words for Camille and feel no warmth for her sister. We turn every page in the hope Wind Gap’s ways will be reprimanded. Sharp Objects is a murder mystery that explores small town politics and a deep-rooted misogyny and rape culture embedded in its architecture.

I’ve said this far too often this year (I don’t usually feel like such a know-it-all when reading a novel), but I guessed a portion of the ending to this book but wasn’t disappointed to be correct. I was convinced throughout that I would be rating Sharp Objects as 5/5 once I’d closed the book for the final time. Part of the ending, however, didn’t sit well with me. I can’t quite pinpoint it because it wasn’t necessarily that I wasn’t satisfied, I think I simply felt there were questions unanswered and I possibly preferred the ending I came up with (not that I’m willing to take on Gillian Flynn in a Who Can Write the Best Ending competition). Overall, however, I absolutely adored the book and Sharp Objects will forever be the reason I’m looking for more and more thrillers to add to my bookshelves. Sharp Objects has been made into a series which stars Amy Adams and I cannot wait to sit down and watch it. It’s a book that is made to be seen on the television. Sharp Objects is dark and tense and gives you that horrible but interested feeling in your gut. It is a really excellent read.